Merry Christmas!

From the even more obsessed contributor Ed. Thanks! And Merry Christmas to all.

After trying the latest bars, I tried another set, and finally came back to the originals. I had to braze them on as the stem bolt through them was hardly enough. That's okay - I like the look a lot better this way - it's more of a cast look. I scuffed the bars with emery cloth to get rid of that new chrome look. 1" bars are difficult to come by unless you are looking at modern metric or Harley stuff. The new problem will be fabricating an internal throttle. Cheap and expensive 1" versions are readily available but the only 7/8" option would be the Honda CT-70 Monkey Bike throttle, which would work and is often used for Brit chops, etc., but which might be a bit sloppy. We'll see what I come up with. I also plug welded the bottom bracket bearing insert for the "countershaft". I will cut the remainder of the jackshaft once the chainline is determined for sure. The wheels arrived yesterday and I finally got a look at them this morning. They are plenty strong but will add a challenge, which I was anticipating, of making a sprocket carrier. I will likely use the existing freewheel cog, turn off the teeth and make a carrier of that. The chainline along the right side is close and looks like it will work with this idea.

State of the Project Address

So here's what is looks like at this point. I'm still waiting for the new 1" handlebars to arrive as well as the wheels. The jackshaft in place but I have yet to weld it up. I have to double check the offset needed between the pulleys to allow for the shift as they each expand(one way only each). I had to make a spacer for the crankshaft under the clutch as it was not seating against the crank. Also without a spacer the O.D. of the clutch would rub the case. There was also a gap between the end of the crankshaft and the outside of the clutch so I had to make a spacer so as not to have a 1" gap under there. I bought a larger stainless bolt and rethreaded the crankshaft as 9mm isn't the easiest to find. Really there should be only slight axial loads on the clutch as it open/closes so this bold/spacer setup is just to keep it in place while the woodruff key takes all the burden. Here are those parts and where they go. My plans were to move the engine a bit more to the right. It felt balanced already but without those fins on the flywheel and with the pulleys as the new "meatgrinder", I decided to shift it about 1/8" to the right. I know that's not much but every bit helps get that jackshaft shorter(i.e. right shifted). I decided to remove the outside mounting holes and bosses from the case to clean it up a bit more. Here's what I removed and how the block now looks.

IBT is useless!

I resisted up to this point complaining again about a Chinese tool but the performance of IBT (the bearing distributor) put me in a bad mood today over a petty delay. My lathe chewed up a reduction shaft bearing but that wasn't even a surprise as it is Chinese made! I tightened the shaft a while back where I determined I needed to oil the bushing more. Since the liberal lubrication, it has disintegrated in short order. I wondered why the ratchet clutch on that reduction shaft had been slipping and the chuck stalling more and more lately. The pulleys were probably 1/16" closer than they should've been due to the wallowed out bearing. May I bore you for a moment? It started with the freezing rain on the last of three days of little sleep and three 13-hour nights at work with an added few hours of classroom CE time(in the hospital for 16 hours last night) and the theft of a $170 stethoscope(was not actually mine but was in my keeping for our whole unit - okay, I was slowly claiming it as my own!). I thought I would drop by IBT, their headquarters no less, on the way home for a few bearings and convert the dead shaft from a bushing to bearings. I figured out I could bypass the shaft and run the chuck at higher speeds for the work needed. Also thought I'd grab a bearing to convert the top slide shaft to a bearing mount - a mod I've needed to do for a while. BTW, that iron dust from the flywheel job was really a mess. Gummed up everything! I figured I would disassemble the carriage and clean/adjust everything when doing a few mods. I was hoping to get a lot done on my next few off with new Worksman wheels, new 1" handlebars, Brooks saddle, correct Comet belt, a vintage pin striping tool(for the down and seat tubes - I have brushes but the tools always intrigued me), and new lathe belts and cross slide bearing conversion kit planned for delivery soon, oh and $250 of Enco odds and ends that arrived today(Linda, you shouldn't be reading this). Kevin Hulsey also sent me a higher res shot of the Cyclone tank emblem which I blew up and copied a few times for painting templates. First IBT didn't have the 12mm X 18mm sealed ball bearings I wanted so convinced me to get them in needle bearings. Fine, they aren't subjected to swarf and I wanted to get the lathe going again. Well, they didn't end up having those either. Mind you these bearings in sealed ball in RS or ZZ are all over online. They referred me to a bearing company closer to my house(though I paid IBT and spent about 30 minutes there) for the bearings they sold me on which they didn't even have. For the top slide bearing I asked for a 5/16" ID and that the other dimensions weren't as critical as I would make a block for it - anything around 3/4" for the OD was okay and width 5/16" to 3/8" would be fine. I just checked and the one they gave me is a 3/8" ID! Who orders the ID of a bearing as "not critical"?! I specified 5/16"! Not really a big deal but $18 and 1 1/2 later I have a shaft running on needle bearings possibly on a non hardened shaft and nothing for my conversion. This will likely give me just enough time to turn a new shaft and thread it to replace the one that will crumble. Those of you guys in the country, don't complain for not having access to all the "big city" resources. If you have UPS delivery, you will have delayed but just as good access to what you need nowadays. If it's closer,it's more expensive than the additional shipping so..... I did enjoy boring out the sprocket shaft for the bearings. You would think the bronze bushing would run on a hardened shaft but on this lathe who knows. It certainly wasn't pollished. There are plenty of pics on the web of Chinese taps and twist drills spun around due to not being hardened. I will surface harden it and replace the needles with balls and get the right top slide bearing online - $5 in shipping is worth less to me than another hour running around rewarding the idiots that wasted my morning once already. Sadly, I see our society going this route where human contact is limited. Actually, maybe it's better if I limit my contact to idiots. I added some acetone to the primed tank to check for leaks. There were a few as suspected but not many and not bad ones. I plan to hit it all hard again tomorrow.

Lightened Flywheel

Okay, I didn't do this to lighten it and I doubt it will run any better with less weight. If you've read back a ways you'll see pics of what the stock flywheel looked like. Without the ugly shrouds covering it, it was a spinning cheese grater! The fins are needed for weight but for cooling they are now useless, ugly, and scary. It was also dangerously close to my right shin - or where I suspect my shin will reside. They had to go. Here's what I cut off. I then turned the remainder down on the lathe. One day out in the winter weather will make the freshly machined surface look like the rest. Here it is back on the motor. Notice how much narrower the motor appears now. The jackshaft visible in this shot has not been shortened yet. I'm waiting for the wheels to arrive before I decide which side to drive it from. I have a feeling it will be right side drive but, if so, the sprocket will obviously be much closer in than it appears now. Measure twice - cut once. Music of the day: Never got to see them live but these guys were/are always the real deal and always sound good live.

"Copper Bike"

I stumbled upon these on Flickr - a project also from a Ed. See Ed's project in a previous post. Obviously Ed has a passion for BTRs and a vision for doing things the right way. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Jackshaft

So there are several ways to run this thing. I turned the bearing carriers down to the size of the 2" tube. Once the chainline is figured out, I will plug weld this into the bottom bracket. The pic above is what the setup would look like if I ran the chain on the left side of the bike. Since I don't have the Worksman wheels here, I can't determine the chainline for spacers but it is pretty close to where it would be. If I bought their 3/4" bearing wheels (with .125 inch hub material), requested by the guys making early auto replicas (http://www.smallcarplans.com), I could make my own sprocket carrier for the left side BUT there would be no brakes. I am planning on a rear drum and brakeless front. Since I don't know how robust their sprocket mounting configuration is, and since the drum will be fixed on the left side, I will likely run the chain down the drive side. I would rather have the pulley and driven gear on the same side of the bike so that the opposing forces will not twist the frame as much under torque. More about that as I get to it. Here I am cutting off some of the fins on the flywheel. They are a definite hazard turning 3000 RPM right in front of one's right shin. A small guard should be easy to fashion around the thinned flywheel. After this I will clean it up on the mill. I will leave some material there, not because there is any cooling effect (without all the shrouds), but because the engine needs the weight. Since I'm adding the clutch to the other end of the crankshaft, I'm hoping I will offset the weight reduction enough that I don't lose too much torque or create starting problems.